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Biogeochemistry

Nocturnal escape route for marsh gas

Nature volume 535, pages 363–365 (2016)Cite this article

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A field study of methane emissions from wetlands reveals that more of the gas escapes through diffusive processes than was thought, mostly at night. Because methane is a greenhouse gas, the findings have implications for global warming.

Diffusive emission of sparingly soluble gases such as methane from wetlands is controlled by passage across the air–water interface. Field data show that the emission can be quantified using a model in which the near-surface water is renewed by upwelling motions, for instance, those caused by turbulent eddies, associated with wind or cooling2,3. Methane transport across the air–water interface accelerates as turbulence intensifies, for example as the wind increases. Poindexter et al. are the first to quantify how heat loss from wetland surfaces accelerates diffusive emissions over seasonal and annual cycles, using a heat-flux-based equation that is similar to the surface-renewal model2,3,4.

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Figure 1: Methane-transport pathways from wetland soils.

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References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Katey Walter Anthony is at the Water and Environmental Research Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska 9775-7340, USA.,

    Katey Walter Anthony

  2. Sally MacIntyre is at the Marine Science Institute, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California 93106-6150, USA.,

    Sally MacIntyre

Authors
  1. Katey Walter Anthony
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  2. Sally MacIntyre
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Correspondence to Katey Walter Anthony or Sally MacIntyre.

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Anthony, K., MacIntyre, S. Nocturnal escape route for marsh gas. Nature 535, 363–365 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/535363a

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